“…I don’t think there’s a single lesson that motherhood has to offer that couldn’t be learned elsewhere. If you want to know what’s in motherhood for you, as a woman, then–in truth–it’s nothing you couldn’t get from, say, reading the 100 greatest books in human history; learning a foreign language well enough to argue in it; climbing hills; loving recklessly; sitting quietly, alone, in the dawn; drinking whiskey with revolutionaries; learning to do close-hand magic; swimming in a river in winter; growing foxgloves, peas, and roses; calling your mum; singing while you walk; being polite; and always, helping strangers. No one has ever claimed for a moment that childless men have missed out on a vital aspect of their existence, and were the poorer and crippled by it…

That’s how Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live, put it. The standard American diet (or SAD for short) is ravaging our country. Today, more than one third of US adults are obese, and in 2008, medical costs associated with obesity (for such diseases as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer) were estimated at $147 billion.

“[Climate change is] not a function of bad technology, it’s a function of a bad business model: of the fact that Exxon Mobil and BP and Peabody Coal are allowed to use the atmosphere, free of charge, as an open sewer for the inevitable waste from their products. They’ll fight to the end to defend that business model, for it produces greater profits than any industry has ever known. We won’t match them dollar for dollar: To fight back, we need a different currency, our bodies and our spirit and our creativity. That’s what a movement looks like: let’s hope we can rally one in time to make a difference.”–Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibbenContinue Reading

I first wanted to set up this website to help promote a novel I had finished. It was called Scenario, and it was about the allure of celebrity culture and its role in the decline of the American Empire. It was also a murder mystery and a love story. I thought I’d nailed it.

Then I got a phone call from a friend/mentor who was (I suspect mostly due to his generous disposition) extremely enthusiastic about my novel, yet thought it would work better as the material for two short stories. As I value his opinion above any other, this was a blow and a setback.Continue Reading